Parshas Vayechi

Never Say Never1

So he blessed them that day, saying “By you shall Yisrael give
blessing, saying, ‘May G-d make you like Ephraim and Menasheh.’”

The translation sounds better than the original. The first “you” of the
pasuk should either be “them” or “you” in the plural form. After all, it is
Ephraim and Menasheh – plural – whom the parent wants his child to emulate.
The word for “you” in the actual text, however, is becha, which is singular.

While Ephraim and Menasheh are worthy models for parents, suggesting them is
likely to produce some pushback. Look at their background! Their father had
the ability and the resources to give them everything that proper chinuch
calls for. He could offer them wisdom and insight. He could match spiritual
gifts with material ones, providing for all their needs, and overseeing
their well-being even into adulthood. (According to Chazal, Menasheh was
appointed as the majordomo of Yosef’s household; Ephraim became his father’s
Torah study partner.) What sort of example is the upbringing of Yosef’s two
sons to the not-infrequent figure of an under-educated father coping with
poverty? Isn’t their example irrelevant to the majority of Jews?

The object of the preposition in our pasuk is not the two sons, but Yosef
the father. He is the exemplar. While he seemed to have it all, this was not
always true. For years he lived with no resources, at the mercy of his
jailers. Egyptian culture was hardly friendly to the life of holiness he
knew in his father’s house. Any objective observer at the time would have
bet that Yosef would not survive with his previous values intact. Both in
material or spiritual gifts, Yosef for a time seemed sorely lacking. Who
ever would have expected Yosef to rise from penury and desperate solitude to
become the ruler of all Egypt?

That is the point of the berachah in our pasuk. Hashem has His ways of
getting things done that humans cannot predict. The father who frets that he
does not have what it takes to turn his children into Ephraims and Menashehs
can look to Yosef, and gain strength. That father can bless his own children
through the example of Yosef, and hope that he, too, will benefit from some
unanticipated Divine largesse that enables him to provide them with
spiritual and material gifts.

A Fair Price2

In my grave, which I have dug for myself in the land of Canaan –
there you will bury me.

Rashi offers three explanations of the word karisi, whose simple meaning is
“dug.” The third of these sees a connection with the word kri, or pile.
Citing a midrash, Rashi relates that Yaakov took all that he had earned in
the house of Lavan in his final years there, and piled it up in front of
Esav. He offered it to his brother Esav in return for the latter yielding to
Yaakov his share in the M’aras HaMachpelah.

This gesture is puzzling. Surely, even a prime piece of real estate could
not be worth anything approaching the wealth that miracles from Heaven
allowed Yaakov to accumulate. Why would Yaakov deliberately overpay for
Esav’s interest in the burial plot?

Yaakov’s riches came at a price. Chazal3 tell us that at the
root of Yaakov’s fear about encountering his brother after so many years of
separation was Yaakov’s perceived vulnerability. Yaakov felt that the years
he spent in Lavan’s house meant forfeiting two mitzvos: honoring his
parents, and dwelling in Eretz Yisroel. While Yaakov had no choice in the
matter, the reality was that he lacked the merit of those two mitzvos, while
Esav might very well lay claim to them!

This realization was a source of consternation to Yaakov, and he determined
to rectify this shortcoming. He therefore decided to take everything that he
had earned while non-compliant with the demands of those mitzvos, and use
that wealth to purchase Esav’s share in the family tomb in Chevron. He
reasoned that this swap would be a perfect tikkun of his perceived
imperfection. On the one hand, by bringing M’aras HaMachpelah under his
control, he would be honoring his father and ancestors. In spending a royal
sum to purchase the rights, he would also make a powerful statement about
the importance of Eretz Yisroel, offsetting his slight to it in absenting
himself for many years.